Boeing Starliner has been facing lots of technical problems for years now, and it has never been
rated as a capsule NASA can fully rely on.
Even though NASA has spent over half a billion tax-payer's hard earned money to make the
capsule work flawlessly.
Partial software malfunctioning has been frustrating starliner's programs, but Boeing keeps pushing
to resuscitate the capsule each time it fails.
Although the starliner has been sucking lots of cash from NASA, yet Nasa won't want to
give up on it.
Nasa sees a future where the starliner can transport their astronauts to and from the
ISS, alongside spacex which has been making NASA proud through their successful launches.
Ride with us as we walk you through the perfect measure Boeing has strategized to launch the
always-failing starliner, and dock it to the ISS successfully this year.
While spacex and boeing are competing to win nasa's heart by successfully transporting
its astronauts to the ISS, Boeing have been drawn backwards on the race.
Of course, NASA has been drained financially, wasting millions of dollars into starliner's
fruitless maintenance.
Even though NASA has invested near $5 billion in both Boeing and Spacex to develop and launch
it's astronauts to the ISS, spacex has gracefully emerge as the most productive company, since
spacex has won 14 missions, while boeing struggles to garner six missions, yet boeing have not
been able to launch crew members sitting inside the starliner, and dock them to the ISS before.
And Oh yes, On May 30th, 2020.
SpaceX successfully docked NASA astronauts inside the crew dragon capsule to the International
Space Station, and this mission marked the first time that astronauts had been launched
into orbit from American soil since the Space Shuttle program retired in 2011.
And that led to a great turn around for NASA to believe that their astronauts would make
consistent visits to and from the ISS so long as spacex keeps its legacy as the frontier
company to take over space.
Now you can say that Nasa is spacex's biggest competitor, and you won't be wrong - and so
long as spacex continues to win in several space ventures - the company will have a good
chance to earn millions of dollars from Nasa's pocket.
However, it seems starliner will speak a positive language this year, as Boeing is ready to
turn a new leaf - the company claims it's all set to dock the starliner in the ISS,
and this time without any flaws or clock failures.
Let's hope that in 2023, NASA will believe in Boeing's technical capacity.
Or will the starliner fail again on this launch, break NASA's heart and flush maintenance/launch
preparation costs worth millions of dollars down the drain?
Let's wait until April to see how Boeing perseveres to prove us wrong and succeed.
Flashing back to why NASA awarded the crew flight program to Boeing in the first place,
knowing fully well that the company will struggle to succeed in the first place, since Boeing
doesn't have a track record of successful launches to and from the ISS.
NASA entrusted Boeing and awarded the contract for the CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the
company in September 2014 as part of its Commercial Crew Program.
The goal of the program was to develop a unique and generational rocket that can fly astronauts
to the ISS, in hope to end NASA's reliance on Russia for crewed missions.
Especially now that Russia and the U.S are not on good terms.
The idea behind this contract was for the spacecraft to have the capacity to carry up
to seven astronauts to and from low-Earth orbit.
Unfortunately, The CST-100 Starliner program encountered a number of operational challenges,
which led to its launch delays and strenuous phases in development and deployment.
Among the most important challenges are:
Technical challenges: During its first unmanned test flight in December 2019, the Starliner
spacecraft encountered software issues that prevented it from meeting its mission objectives.
The spacecraft took off to the ISS in May 2019, but on its way to the ISS, two of Starliner's
12 main thrusters failed and the spacecraft's temperature control system also malfunctioned
and, even though it docked the ISS without crew members, it was forced to return to Earth
earlier than expected, because of the persisting fault.
After the test flight, NASA conducted a thorough review of the program, identifying a number
of technical issues that needed to be addressed before crewed missions could begin.
Again, regulatory stumbling blocks was another challenge: The Starliner program has also
encountered regulatory stumbling blocks and delays in obtaining the necessary approvals
from NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration to begin crewed missions.
The need to address technical issues and ensure the safety of astronauts and the spacecraft
has caused these delays.
COVID-19 pandemic that slowed down the world's economy was also a stumbling block to the
most starlinsr's operation: The pandemic made the Starliner program run slowly, just like
snail walk, causing testing and development activities to be delayed and disrupted.
The pandemic has also caused delays in obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals and certifications.
These difficulties have hampered the Starliner program and delayed the launch of crewed missions.
Inspite these challenges, NASA and Boeing are jointly working hard to resolve the issues
and move the program forward.
Boeing now intends to launch the first crewed flight of its Starliner capsule, a two-astronaut
test flight to the International Space Station, no earlier than April 2023, two months later
than previously planned.
When NASA started the Commercial Crew Program, the idea was to give the agency options for
getting astronauts and logistics to and from the ISS.
The initial idea was to have three providers, but was shoved down to two - Boeing and SpaceX
as recommended by the US Congress for crew delivery services.
The real reason why Nasa handed the crew mission contract to spacex and boeing was not to put
all its "eggs in one basket."
If there was an issue with one provider, the other could pick up the slack, pressure on
amidst the odds, and reach the ISS.
The wisdom of having options was clearly demonstrated with the Commercial Cargo program when both
providers had issues.
Of course, Starliner had development issues, but the other provider had a headway to the
ISS, making sure all the funds invested wasn't a waste.
Nasa's officials are having high hopes that this coming launch will be successful, as
NASA's officials wrote in an update;
"Starliner and United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket hardware remain on track for readiness
in early 2023."
NASA and Boeing joint team continues to close out the OFT-2 anomalies and partner closely
together to identify forward work and ensure all requirements for crewed flight are met.
The arranged crew members for the next starliner's crew flight test are NASA astronauts Barry
"Butch" Wilmore and Suni Williams.
The mission is expected to last about two weeks — more than twice as long as the six-day
of OFT-2.
If all goes well with the coming flight, Starliner will likely be certified for operational missions,
which Boeing will start flying under a contract it signed with NASA in 2014.
If spacecraft production, and rocket space travel is anything to go by, then it would
be easy for any space company to reach orbit without rocket failure.
Boeing changed management a number of years ago from being a company that built its reputation
on engineering excellence, to a company that threw it away with profit and price hike being
its only concern.
Thankfully, NASA's designs are still excellent and can even tolerate a good measure of poor
manufacturing, but assembly/production has collapsed to being a tragic joke.
But it doesn't drive us with a shock when a whistleblower snuck a camera into the factory
and many of the workers stated they would never dare to fly in anything they built.
At this point Boeing may be following the footsteps of Disney - a very large corporation
with lots of experience - but for 'some reason' have gone completely bonkers losing billions
through garbage products, which of course doesn't impress their fans.
The idea here is that while Disney can silently ditch out crappy movies for us to see and
television series, it would later be edited as bloopers.
But that's contrary to Boeing, a screw up can lead to people losing their lives putting
families into pain of losing their loved ones.
Boeing needs to get rid of any amarture employees infesting the company, and abruptly rule out
invaluable ideology completely.
For now, lets relax and see what happens to the starliner during the forthcoming launch.
But somehow, If the starliner becomes successful this time, then a lot of gross incompetence
may have been erased from Boeing's production process.
What ethics could Boeing keep to fly the starliner to the ISS?
Meanwhile, SpaceX has revealed its new stage zero upgrade that will change everything and
even win the space race.
Click on the video to know more.